Last weekend I brought my Mariner 28 from its winter home in Dighten MA to its summer home in New Bedford Harbor. I just had some brand new sails made and was looking forward to seeing what they would do. My old sails were at least 15 years old. Saturday was a very pleasant day but the wind was on my nose so I motored until I rounded Sarkonett Point. I managed to actually sail a few hours in light wind but did notice a substantial improvement doing about 4.5 to 5 knots in something less that 8-10 knots of wind.. Sunday was miserable. On the open water with 25-30 knot winds in my face. 4 foot seas and a temperature of 48 degrees. UGH!

Feeling cheated I opted to play hooky from work yesterday and had the treat of my sailing life. (This is only my fourth season) Beautiful sunshine, temp in the 60's and a steady wind from the SW at 15 gusting to 20 knots. I discovered what new sails can do for a boat. Last few seasons it was rare to get much past 5.5 knots unless surfing down a wave. I easily exceeded hull speed all day often exceedi9ng 7 knots. Fast for my boat. What a great treat after a long New England winter. Only problem happened when I tried to moor. SW winds get quite intensified in my mooring field and were probably exceeding 20 knots. My usual approch is to come up along side the buoy, snag the line from the cockpit, then walk the line up to the bow. The wind was too strong and I had to keep letting go as it blew me off and away. After 8 tries I managed to wrap the line around the prop and had to get a diver to free me up. Yes I did try this myself but the water is only about 45 degrees now and I thought better a diver than a heart attack.

All in all not the best of starts to a new season but yesterday made me glad I am a sailor!

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

I keep my boat in the new (er) mooring field off the Gifford St. boat ramp(Bayline Marine). It is behind Palmer Island and the hurricane barrier. Boats name is Lucky Dog and is a Mariner 28. White hull with maroon boot and cove stripes.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

Bump,
You have to be light on your feet.
Your situation is exactly why I would never grab my mooring from the cockpit. Ease your nose into the wind so that the bow is directly into the wind at a safe pace, depending on how hard the wind is blowing, try to come to a stop with the boat in neutral and the bow within reach of the can. It takes some practice and it will vary dependent on the wind, but you can do it.
Than you make a mad dash forward to secure yourself. (Just kidding)
Becareful if you get blown off, than you have to make a mad dash back to the helm and get her in gear immediatly.
But, at least you should not have any lines near your prop.

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.